HC Deb 26 July 1939 vol 350 cc1466-8
73. Mr. Day

asked the Minister of Transport the number of fatal and other accidents that have occurred to persons boarding or alighting from stationary tramcars during the 12 months ended to the last convenient date; and will he consider introducing legislation or making further regulations prohibiting either mechanically-propelled or horse-drawn vehicles from passing on the near-side of stationary tramcars whilst passengers are boarding or alighting?

Captain Wallace

For the country as a whole the latest available figures for fatal accidents to persons boarding or alighting from stationary tramcars are those for 1933 and 1935 which were given to the hon. Member on 15th July, 1936. When the last detailed analysis of fatal and non-fatal road accidents was made for the year ending 31st March, 1937, it was not deemed necessary to analyse the figures of accidents to persons boarding or alighting from vehicles according to the type of vehicle. The particulars for which the hon. Member asks are, therefore, not available. I do not think that any amendment of the law in the sense proposed by the hon. Member is necessary. Paragraph 27 of the Highway Code gives clear instructions on the subject of passing stationary tramcars on the nearside, and the existing law provides severe penalties where the practice referred to is a cause of danger.

Mr. Day

Does the right hon. Gentleman not agree that regulations on these lines would minimise fatal and other accidents?

Captain Wallace

No, Sir; if I agreed with that view I should have given a different answer to the hon. Member's question.

Systems. Number of Persons. Average per million passenger vehicle miles run.
Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured.
Tramcars … … … … 17 4,672 .26 70.9
Trolley Omnibuses … … 31 3,7553 .68 82. 4
Motor Omnibuses:
Central Area Omnibuses … 67 11,002 .29 47.9
Coaches … … … 11 524 .39 1.7
Country Omnibuses … … 7 805 .24 2.3
Total … … 133 20,756 .33 52. 2

The figures of injured include all cases reported, however trivial.

The board add that the relatively high figure for trolley omnibuses is incidental to their introduction and that this figure diminishes with experience as is already apparent from those routes where trolley omnibuses were first introduced.

80. Mr. Sorensen

asked the Minister of Transport on what grounds he has decided not to hold an inquiry into the accident near Lancaster on 9th July involving a motor coach and the death through burning of five passengers; whether a contributing cause of the fire resulting from the accident was the cotton carried by the lorry into which the motor coach crashed; whether it is in the public interest that cotton should be carried by lorry rather than by rail; whether the rear lighting of motor lorries is adequate and was so in this case; whether the time

79. Mr. Sorensen

asked the Minister of Transport how many persons have been killed, and how many injured, in road accidents involving, respectively, tram-cars, trolley omnibuses and motor omnibuses per 1,000,000 passenger miles run by the London Passenger Transport Board for the 12 months ended 31st December, 1938?

Captain Wallace

As the answer contains a table of figures I will, with the hon. Member's permission, circulate it in the Official Report.

Following is the answer:

The London Passenger Transport Board inform me that the numbers of persons killed and injured in road accidents involving, respectively, their tram-cars, trolley omnibuses and motor omnibuses, during the 12 months ended 31st December, 1938, were as shown below:

schedule of the coach was in order; and, in view of the necessity of elucidating these and other facts, will he reconsider his decision?

Captain Wallace

I obtained a report on this regrettable accident immediately after it occurred, and in my opinion a Public Inquiry into it would serve no useful purpose. There is always the possibility of legal proceedings arising out of an accident of this kind, and it would therefore not be proper for me to make any statement as to its causes. In any case it would not be practicable to prohibit the carrying of cotton by road.